


A Boundless Journey

by grimdigee



Series: It All Ends Here [5]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Dialogue Heavy, Friendship, Good Ozai, Hurt/Comfort, I'm Bad At Tagging, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Presumed Dead, and now Aang sees it too, the Zukka is real
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:54:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25593115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grimdigee/pseuds/grimdigee
Summary: “Well, we should start making quick work on our trip now, surely he will be reporting back to my father, and the last thing we need right now is HIM getting in the way.” She barked, motioning for the girls to follow her.Or, Azula is on the run, Zuko feels regret, and Ozai gets news.
Relationships: Azula & Mai & Ty Lee, Azula & Mai (Avatar), Azula & Ty Lee (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: It All Ends Here [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1825282
Comments: 5
Kudos: 47





	A Boundless Journey

**Author's Note:**

> Somehow I managed to write this part? Not sure how I did that, considering I was originally planning on posting something else today :0

Yawning, Katara slowly stretched and opened her eyes, it was early in the morning and she had just woken up.

Immediately she was confused, there was a boy resting next to Sokka, he was wearing Earth Kingdom clothing and had raven black hair, pale skin, and sharp cheekbones.

He was cute, but looked strangely familiar.

Shaking the thought away, she sat up and kicked Sokka in the leg, he yelped and shot out of his sleeping bag, boomerang ready to be thrown.

Not pondering the idea of... Did he really sleep with his boomerang? Katara glowered.

“Who's the new guy?” She asked, hand reaching for her water pouch, just in case she needed to use it.

Sokka blinked, before turning to look at the 'new guy', and he smiled.

“That's Li, he's a traveler and stumbled across our camp while heading for town, I was still awake so we talked for awhile and by the time we stopped it was already too late for him to get a room at the inn, I offered for him to stay here and he accepted.” He said smoothly.

Katara hummed in response, staring at the boy while he slept.

“Li huh? How old is he?” She asked, curious.

“He's sixteen.” Her brother responded, dusting off his shirt and beginning to pack his things in preparation to leave.

“Sixteen? That's awfully young to be traveling alone.” Katara said, crossing her arms.

Sokka gave her a look.

“What?” She said, annoyed.

“Katara... I'm almost sixteen, you're fourteen, Aang is freaking twelve, what do you MEAN he's 'awfully young' to be traveling?!” Sokka threw his arms up, exasperated.

She shrugged at him.

“I mean alone, we all have each other.” Sokka was about to retort something but was cut off by a grumble.

“Gosh, you two are loud, are you always this noisy or am I just that surprising?” Li said, turning to glare at the Water Tribe siblings.

Katara turned away while Sokka rubbed the back of his head.

“Sorry Li.” The two said in unison.

Li rose from his spot, pulling his arms up and groaning softly.

“It's all right, pardon me though, where might you three be heading?” He asked casually, making the siblings furrow their brows, because 'Who even talks like that these days???'.

Despite their confusion, Katara was the one to answer.

“Well, we're heading to Omashu to see King Bumi, Aang needs an Earthbending teacher and he wants it to be him.” She explained, going to join Sokka in packing.

Li nodded, seemingly deep in thought.

“Omashu, huh? Well, I don't have a destination, and going there sounds like fun.. Do you mind if I tag along?” He asked, grinning at her.

She narrowed her eyes suspiciously, before sighing.

“Well, you don't really give off a bad vibe, I guess you can come.” She said, before following it up with “If you try anything though, I won't hesitate to freeze you.”

Li nodded his head vigorously.

“Yes, of course, I understand.”

“Well, I guess we better wake Aang and explain our new companion..” Sokka said, laughing.

…

Mai and Ty Lee are dragged out of the inn by their leader and friend, Azula.

She was clearly in quite a rush to get moving, not that the two blamed her, after the... incident, from the previous day.

Azula was probably just ready to escape this place and clear her mind.

As they walked down the street, ready to make their exit, Ty Lee hums a merry tune and turns to sight see while the three walk.

Her joy is quickly trampled as she makes eye contact with a young man across the street, a Fire Nation soldier.

He was sitting at an oak tavern table with some other soldiers, seeming to have been deep in conversation with them, before he had spotted her among the crowd.

She knew that man, he was the son of a family friend, she didn't see him often but enough that they would recognize each other... Unfortunately it was a two way street.

He rose, startled at seeing someone so familiar, and as his eyes shot to Azula, Ty Lee knew they were in trouble.

She grabbed her friends by the arms as the boy started to approach, and promptly fled, her comrades trailing close behind.

“Ty Lee, what's gotten into you?!” Mai shouted once they were far enough away from the village.

The three panted, out of breath from running so far, and Ty Lee brushed the small beads of sweat forming at her forehead.

“Fire Nation soldier.. He was the son of a family friend and... He knew me when he saw me..” She explained, twisting her fingers together.

There was silence among the group, before Azula spoke up.

“Well, we should start making quick work on our trip now, surely he will be reporting back to my father, and the last thing we need right now is HIM getting in the way.” She barked, motioning for the girls to follow her.

They complied... They always did...

…

Ozai rubbed his temple, keeping his Nation in order while every member of his family, minus his wife, was gone... Was difficult... To say the least.

He was much less worried about continuing the war at this point and more worried about getting his daughter back.

If Azula fell into the hands of the enemy, they wouldn't hesitate to kill her, and Ozai knew he wasn't going to let go of her so easily.

As he read through another complaint from his army, a messenger burst through the doors of his office.

The Firelord turned to glare at the man, the man who had broken the silence.

“Why do you bother me? It better be important.” He said, briskly.

The messenger nodded quickly, bowing low and holding the scroll out for him to take, and Ozai did.

He read through the paper, eyes widening.

“Gather my best men, I'm going out.” He spoke softly, standing.

“I'll need them.” Ozai finalized, before walking out the door, leaving the messenger awfully confused.

…

There was a camp set up on the outskirts of Ba Sing Se, Iroh stared it down, he traveled far to get here and didn't rest often, he couldn't.

Making his way down the hill, the older man sighed gently.

“Zuko.. Where are you?” He asked.

No one was there to answer.

…

Aang was buzzing with excitement, he was always welcoming to new friends and companions, and one just fell right into his lap.

Despite trying to practice, he was distracted by the teen across the water from him.

Li and Sokka were talking, laughing, probably over a joke Sokka made.

They were sat at the bank, Li still fully clothed and outside of the water, leaning on a rock, Sokka though, was in only his underwear, hair down and sticking to his face.

Aang wasn't all innocence and bubbles, he knew what it was like to like someone, and he wasn't so oblivious as to miss the obvious flirting going on between the two, despite that, he ignored it.

While the boy came off as cold or mean at first, once Li started warming up to them he was quite kind and caring.

Although he didn't like talking about his personal life much, Aang did manage to get out of him some information on their flight here, like how he likes theatre, and turtleducks.

The Avatar was smacked back into reality, quite literally actually.

Katara lowered her water whip, looking incredibly miffed.

“If you are going to slack off, you may as well do a better job of hiding it.” She said, sharply, before shooting some more water at him.

Aang quickly blocked it and sent it back at her, she smiled.

“That's better.” Katara praised.

…

Azula stared at the river in front of her.

Her reflection was scowling, although she didn't feel it.

After a few minutes she slapped the water away, growling.

“I hate this... I hate everything about this, and you two act like nothing is wrong..” She wrenched around, staring daggers.

Ty Lee and Mai shrugged.

“Well, you were the one who wanted to come on this journey... For revenge.” Mai said, pushing a stray hair behind her ear.

“For Zuko.. For my Uncle... FOR MY FATHER!” Azula shrieked, her friends turned to her, wide eyed.

“Azula... Calm down...” Ty Lee said softly, moving to comfort the other girl, attempting to coax the angry Princess into sitting by their fire.

She brushed the petite hands off her arm, scoffing.

“Leave me alone.. I'm going for a walk..” Azula said, turning on her heal and walking down the edge of the river.

It felt like that was all she ever did these days... Walk away.

…

The group of teens stared out at Omashu, still the great city it had always been.

Zuko was seated next to Sokka.

The young Water Tribe boy winked at him, and Zuko couldn't help but smile.

He felt like these kids were really growing on him.

He felt like he'd regret the coming betrayal...

**Author's Note:**

> Once again, I wasn't really that proud of this one, but I feel like I know the reason they've been coming out in worse and worse quality, and now that I know, I'll be working hard to fix this problem.
> 
> And once I start truly editing them, once I release the full story, all these issues will be fixed :)
> 
> Apologies if there were any mistakes, that's just my nature..


End file.
